POLLITT SAYS NO TAX INCREASE “DURING THIS RECESSION”

Have you noticed the silence on this since this blog broke the story that certain Wicomico County officials, including the “public information officer” were actively encouraging a “grassroots movement” to promote higher property taxes in Wicomico County? This past week that silence was broken, and not just by the news that $3.5 Million in available county funds have been found to spend on roads.

In a public statement Rick Pollitt announced that he has no plan to raise the tax rate to generate more revenue “during this recession”. He was speaking in regard to the recent reduced property values in tax assessments, which reflect and are based upon the declining sales prices of property during the past several years. Under the “revenue tax cap” it may possible to actually raise the tax rate to some extent as long as the total tax revenue does not exceed the “cap”.

Although Pollitt did not specifically rule out asking for a tax increase in the budget to be adopted this spring, it can be predicted that he won’t ask the Council to do so because both he and the Council members must stand for reelection in the fall if they want to continue in office. No doubt he has already ordered Fineran and others in the administration to stop trying to organize a movement to “kill the cap”.

But what if this were not an election year – and what about future years? The property value assessments are likely to continue to decrease for at least 1-2 more years, which could result in a possible tax rate increase even greater than this coming year.

There has been no permanent reduction in non-essential services or employees, such as parks and recreation and the public information officer. And future spending by the County proposed by Pollitt is still in an expanding mode – for instance the plan to purchase another 10 acres for parking at the Civic Center in the capital improvement plan that he recently issued. You do the math!